Monthly Archives: May 2007

We hardly go to the Aberdeen Centre, not sure why even though we know there are quite a few nice bloggable restaurants there. Suanne and I had an afternoon by ourselves and decided to go to the Aberdeen Centre to check out the restaurants there.

The Aberdeen Centre s actually named after the Aberdeen Harbour in Hongkong. This centre is actually a new reincarnation of the old Aberdeen Center which was demolished and rebuilt again to compete with the other new Asian Mall around Richmond.

The Aberdeen Centre caters primarily for Asian-Canadian shoppers — mainly Chinese, Hongkong Chinese. The primary tenant is Daiso where everything is sold for two dollars. Unlike other Asian Malls around the Vancouver area, this one is very clean, spacious, bright and uncluttered.

Someone recommended the Northern Delicacy restaurant to us sometime back. I can’t be absolutely sure but I think it was Daniel and Clarina. The restaurant has a very wide entrance, untypical of chinese restaurants and you can’t miss the two Terracotta warriors by it’s entrance.

I know very little about Chinese cuisines, especially the little subtleties of cuisines around the various regions. So, I got a question for you readers … what exactly is termed as Northern Cuisine? My impression is that it consists of things like steamed buns (especially xiao lung bao) and noodles in soup. Somehow, I felt that Northern food are more “steamy” because of the cold weather in the northern region. Any expert who can enlighten us?

Suanne told me that the Chinese name for this restaurant does not translate to Northern Delicacy but instead it should translate to something like “Full House Restaurant”. Continue reading →

Julie also made a Hong-Zao Fried Rice to be served with the Twice Cooked Pork Belly and Hong-Zao Stir-fry Pork Belly. She also brought some Hong-Zao made by her friend for sale. It costs $5 for a small tub as it takes a long time to make it. I did not buy it because I’m not sure if my kids will like the distinctive flavour of Hong-Zao.

Julie made a dish called Hong-Zao Chicken Salad sometime ago. Julie told us that Hong-Zao, the red fermented glutinous rice paste is known to improve blood circulation and helps to reduce clogs in the arteries according to a Japan University study.

This time, Julie made a Stir-fry Pork Belly seasoned with Hong-Zao. She used the same pork belly which has been boiled once and sliced thin.

Ingredients

Pork belly which had been boiled and thinly sliced

a few sticks of celery which is cut into one inch strips and thinly sliced; you may substitute celery with sliced onions or green onions.

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 teaspoons of Hong-Zao paste

2 teaspoons of Miso paste

Instructions

Briefly blanched the thinly sliced celery in boiling water.

As usual, start with sauteing the garlic until fragrant in medium heat.

Mix the Hong-Zao paste with Miso paste in a small bowl and add to the sauteed garlic.

Add in the cooked sliced pork belly and stir-fry until well mix.

Finally, add in the celery and stir-fry until well mix but do not overcooked the vegetables.

The Hong-Zao gives the dish a distinguish reddish colour. It also has a wine flavour to it. Such dish is always great with steam rice.

I had heard a long time about this snack which is very popular in Australia. I came across this at the Real Canadian Superstore some weeks ago. I would have missed seeing this if not because the Superstore placed a big signage of it at the end-cap.

Tim Tam is basically a chocolate biscuit. It is made of two layers of chocolate malted biscuit, separated by a light chocolate cream filing and coated with a layer of chocolate.

It’s amazing how a simple chocolate biscuit became such a popular snack in Australia. I think it largely because of the way Tim Tams are supposed to be eaten. I had been told that the right way to eat Tim Tam is to bite off two corners of the biscuit and then use it like a drinking straw to suck up hot chocolates.

You got to suck it really hard and fast as the insides does melt away really fast and makes the biscuit collapse. My boys always have a hot chocolate before they sleep and they love Tim Tams.

Any Aussie reader on this blog? Any tips on how best to eat Tim Tam? I am sure there are ways to prevent this biscuit from falling apart so fast.

Arkensen’s appetite has been growing lately. He is constantly looking for snacks. So, I decided to bake a batch of cookies to satisfy his huge appetite.

After browsing through my recipe collections, I decided to try this Corn Flake Cookies since I have some corn flakes in my pantry. My kids are not a fan of cereals. I bought the corn flakes to make Peanut Butter Pita Bread.

The Corn Flake Cookies came out thin, crispy and buttery, just the way Ben likes cookies. However, Arkensen would prefer chewier cookies.

This recipe yields 40 cookies. This is a very simple cookies recipe and I don’t think I need to illustrate the steps with pictures. I will just post the recipe here.

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups cornflakes, whole

Instructions

Cream the butter and sugar (I just cream them by hand).

Mix all dry ingredients and add to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix well.

Add nuts, vanilla and cornflakes (no need to crush as the mixing will crush them). Mix until blended (by hand).

Roll into balls about the size of an English walnut. I used a small ice-cream scoop to do the job.

Place balls on an ungreased cookie sheet (which I lined with parchment paper). Leave space (2″ apart) for spreading as the cookies spread quite a bit. Flatten the ball with a fork.

Bake in a preheated 350F (I set mine to 325F as I’m using dark cookie sheet) for 10 to 12 minutes.

Let cool slightly on cookie sheet (cookie is very soft just out of the oven) before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Jean’s second dish is Baked Chicken with Pineapple. Chicken goes well with pineapple. The pineapple juice helps to tenderize the chicken.

The chicken turned out to be slightly on the sweet side as Jean added a lot more candied ginger than stated in the recipe to the dish. Jean loves candied ginger, so do I. Check out the goodness of candied ginger here.

Polly and I missed our cake meet as both of us have a busy schedule. Finally, we get to have a break this Tuesday to go to Sweet Obsession at 2611 West 16th Avenue, Vancouver. Sweet Obsession is located in a small street mall in a residential area.

There is hardly any signage except one small one in front of the shop.

Sweet Obsession has a selection of exquisite cakes and pastries. You will be amazed at the selection available there; ranging from cheese cake, chocolate cake, mousse cake, tiramisu, torte, tart, flan, etc. They cater for all occasions from small dinner parties to weddings and formal affairs.

We decided to order our favourite cheesecake. We ordered two slices of cheesecake to share. The first one is a Chai Latte flavour cheesecake. The Chai flavour is very strong and overpowering somehow.

We preferred the Lemon flavour cheesecake instead. The tanginess just goes well with the creaminess of the cheesecake.

The cheesecake cost slightly over $5 per slice. We also ordered a Mocha and a Cappuccino to go with the cheesecakes. The drinks cost between $2.50 and $2.70.

The total bill came up close to $20 including tips. This is the only cake place that we’ve seen with mothers coming in for a take out with their baby prams. Sweet Obsession has very good traffic with a lot of clients coming in for take-out. The traffic tells us that this is a great place for cake.